Home at Hartford: Day By Day

February 27 Wednesday – Augustin Daly turned down Sam’s dramatization of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Daly wrote “I fear that Tom Sawyer would not make a success at my theatre.” He disagreed with Sam that grown ups could play the part of children [MTP]. Webster claims that Sam “seems to have dropped playwrighting at this point” [236-7].

February 27 Friday – Sam wrote from Philadelphia to William Dean Howells:

To-night in Baltimore, to-morrow afternoon & night in Washington, & my four-months platform campaign is ended at last. It has been a curious experience. It has taught me that Cable’s gifts of mind are greater & highter than I had suspected. But—

February 27 Saturday – Julia D. Grant was presented with a check drawn on the U.S. National Bank, New York for $200,000. Charles Webster wrote Sam on Feb 26 that he’d decided to pay her that amount, so Webster did the honors, not Sam, as some have reported (Perry, p 233, for instance — see prior entry). The actual check no. 353 was inspected at the MTP. (See Oct. 11 entry.)

February 27 Monday – Sam gave a reading at the Hartford Public High School, probably for the Rev. Leopold Simonson’s class. The content of Sam’s reading or remarks is not known [MTNJ 3: 377].

February 27 Wednesday – At 3 p.m. Sam gave a dinner speech at the Wadsworth Athenaeum in Hartford for the Hartford Art Society. Unfortunately, the program, which closed at 5 p.m., was not recorded [MTNJ 3: 447n133]. Note: this has been erroneously reported as the Athenaeum Club in Boston.

February 27 Thursday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Orion about notices of CY and about the health of their mother. He was gratified with Charles H. Clark’s review in the Courant. Of another unspecified review arrived, he wrote that it made him “exceedingly comfortable.” He remarked he’d received “so many uncomplimentary blasts” lately and enjoyed the change. Many of the negative reviews of CY were from the English. Livy was now well.

February 27 Friday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall displaying an urgency caused by his distressed financial state. He wrote of the pending Sherman book:

What is the very quickest you can issue it? Its market is best for the next 30 days, I think; then nearly as good for 30 more; then comes the fading quickly out.

February 28 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Orion, asking him to return the 1601 manuscript (Or, Conversation As it Was by the Social Fireside, in the time of the Tudors) “& keep no copy of it.”  Evidently, Sam had given the risqué sketch to his brother during his and Mollie’s recent visit to Hartford, and later thought better of it.

February 28 Monday – Through the efforts of Cadet Andrew G. “Beaut” Hammond, Hartford neighbor and member of Twichell’s congregation, Sam visited West Point with Twichell. Sam gave readings: “Clarence and Eugene,” “How I Escaped Being Killed in a Duel,” and “Cure for Stammering” [Leon 35-50; MTLP 394]. Twichell noted the event in his journal; he gave an address in the ceremonies, given by the literary society of the U.S. Military Academy:

February 28 Tuesday – Karl Gerhardt wrote to Sam and Livy of his progress at school [MTP].

Worden & Co. Sent a statement showing a balance of $13,682.53 [MTP].

February 28 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Chatto & Windus to ratify an agreement between Chatto and Herr J.H. Schufthas Boghandel of Copenhagen, Denmark, giving him the right to translate LM into Swedish [MTP].

February 28 Thursday – Sam wrote to Ainsworth R. Spofford, Librarian of Congress, enclosing $1 fee and asking that the synopsis of his play for “The Prince & Pauper, a romance in 4 Acts” be copyrighted [MTP].

February 28 Saturday – Sam and Cable read at the Congregational Church, Washington, D.C.

Note: Fatout gives figures from Pond’s cashbook, listing $789 as the take from this reading [Circuit 218]. Thus ended the “Twins of Genius” tour: total gross receipts, $46,201, from which Cable’s salary and expenses took more than $20,000. Cable earned $6,750, Sam approximately $15,000, and Pond’s commissions “a modest $2500 to $3000” [228].

February 28 Thursday – Sam gave a short speech introducing poet James Whitcomb Riley (1849-1916) and humorist Edgar Wilson “Bill” Nye (1850-1896) at the Tremont Temple in Boston. The pair toured together in 1886 and 1889. Nye founded the Laramie, Wyoming Boomerang in 1881. Fatout writes,

February 28 Friday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Matthias H. Arnot, letter not extant but referred to in Arnot’s Mar. 3 response. Sam was urging Arnot to come look at the Paige typesetter [MTP].

February 28 Saturday – In Hartford Sam wrote to William Dean Howells asking a favor. Sam was interested in using a phonograph to dictate his new book, The American Claimant.

February 29 Sunday – Orion Clemens wrote from Keokuk to Sam, adding to it on Mar. 1. “We left Fredonia Wednesday, and arrived here Thursday—26 hours from Dunkirk…Yesterday I wrote 20 pages with great satisfaction…We received your welcome letter Friday, and were glad to hear the little ones are well” [MTP].

February 29 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster with ideas to discount subscription sales if a buyer bought two or more different books [MTBus 239-40]. He’d been writing “original matter” for L. Prang & Co, a big calendar and Christmas card publisher that used color to spur sales. Sam’s arrangement was to receive ten cents for each dollar calendar sold. Simple, yet Sam saw a loophole that might yield him more:

February 3 Tuesday – In Boston, Howells wrote to Sam of health of the wives, a sketch sent by Sam and a recent event: “That Tile Club Dinner, I’m told, was great affair: darkies in fezes and yataghans waiting on the guests, and narghiles ad libitum” [MTHL 1: 289].

February 3 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to his sister Pamela Moffett, enclosing a letter from Augustus P. Chamberlaine, which recommended a California adviser for Samuel Moffett on his trip west, one Charles Hoar. Sam wrote “We are thriving here…” [MTP].

February 3 Friday – Sam’s 6 PM Friday Evening Club (drinking, smoking, billiards for men) included: Charles Hopkins Clark, asst. editor of the Hartford Courant; Joe Twichell; Edwin Pond Parker, Congregationalist clergyman; Samuel C. Dunham and Henry C. Robinson attorneys; and William T.

February 3 Sunday – Sam wrote a one liner to Charles Webster, asking for his pen or “a carefully-selected one like it” [MTBus 233].

Sam also wrote a note to James B. Pond in Cable’s behalf, following up on his telegram of Feb. 2:

“He is in no danger, but I do not believe he will be out of bed for several weeks yet. I am sure he will not stand on a platform again this season” [MTP].

Sam went to the Asylum Hill Congregational Church:

February 3 Tuesday – Sam and Cable gave a second reading at the Central Music Hall, Chicago, Illinois. From the Chicago Tribune, Feb. 3:

February 3 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam received a visit by Professor Francis Wayland (1826-1904), dean of the law school at Yale. In a letter to Julia D. Grant (Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant) Sam quoted Wayland about the Grant Memoirs:

February 3 Thursday – In Hartford Sam wrote Richard Watson Gilder, editor of Century Magazine:

Say — please send me a couple of proofs of that truck pretty soon in a few days, won’t you? I’m to read it to our Young Girl’s Club here in the house and b’gosh I haven’t got any copy. I’ll see you at the Publishers and Stationers’ Dinner at the Brunswick the 10th if you’re there which I reckon you will be if you are [MTP]. Note: “that Truck” was “English as She is Taught”.